Business Stories with a Lesson #1
from Business All.com 7/13 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz
The Shoe Story. Many years ago two Salesmen were sent by a British shoe manufacturer to Africa to investigate and report back on market potential. The first salesman reported back, “There is no potential here – nobody wears shoes.” The second salesman reported back, “There is massive potential here – nobody wears shoes.”
This simple short story provides one of the best examples of how a single situation may be viewed in two quite different ways – negatively or positively. We could explain this also in terms of seeing a situation’s problems and disadvantages, instead of its opportunities and benefits.
The Thief & The Paintings. A thief was caught after stealing some paintings from the Louvre in Paris, when his getaway van ran out of fuel. Given bail at his first hearing, a reporter asked him on the steps of the courthouse how he forgot such a vital part of his plan. “Simple,” said the thief, “I had no Monet for Degas to make the Van Gogh.”
The Message of the Badge. A landscape gardener ran a business that had been in the family for two or three generations. The staff were happy, and customers loved to visit the store, or to have the staff work on their gardens or make deliveries – anything from bedding plants to ride-on mowers. For as long as anyone could remember, the current owner and previous generations of owners were extremely positive happy people. Most folk assumed it was because they ran a successful business. In fact it was the other way around…
The Badge. A tradition in the business was that the owner always wore a big lapel badge, saying “Business is Great! The business was indeed generally great, although it went through tough times like any other. What never changed however was the owner’s attitude, and the badge saying “Business Is Great! Everyone who saw the badge for the first time invariably asked, “What’s so great about business?” Sometimes people would also comment that their own business was miserable, or even that they personally were miserable or stressed. Anyhow, the “Business Is Great! badge always tended to start a conversation, which typically involved the owner talking about lots of positive aspects of business and work, for example:
[The Badge continued, Stranded Car Dilemma, Sick of Work, The Soldiers & The Trench, and more in Premium Content]